- The pics aren't detailed enough for me to say the chrome shadow show car has different inset on rears than the later pics. The reflections make the inset look more shallow than it is, to me.

But it could be you're all right and for several reasons. Show car might have wheels from another supplier... someone else might have decided a shallower inset was stronger or better suited their casting method... I believe all the 18" are cast but could be wrong. After all, the outside edge does usually take more abuse than the inside. It also might have something to do with the wheel offset for the production car needing to be different for whatever reason.

It's important to remember the "show" in showcar. That car was made for glitz, not reality. Yeah, I liked the chrome shadow show car too... it's the only one I've seen in person so far. But wheels are easy enough to "fix" after the fact, so whatever they put on I can deal with it. I may bitch and moan that they are not forged, or that the paint comes off too easy and polished is nicer. But ultimately I could relegate them to winter wheels and replace them with whatever I want. Nothing to get uptight about, but I'll agree, it would be nice to get BMW to reconsider some of these decisions, or at least get the facts behind them.